


Dumplings

by 3tequilafloor



Series: In Bed [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Caretaking, Gen, Influenza, Nausea, Nishinoya Yuu & Tanaka Ryuunosuke are Bros, Poor dude, Sibling Bonding, Siblings, Sickfic, Tanaka Ryuunosuke is a Good Friend, actually ryuu is like passed out the whole time, and yuu she guesses since he's always there too, everyone loves the tanakas, noya is a menace, ok that's probably enough tags, ryuu doesn't mind, saeko kind of minds because she's sick just go away everyone, saeko loves her baby bro, she might throw up on you, tanaka ryuunosuke is a good brother, tanaka saeko is a badass, there's snot and spit sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7661389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3tequilafloor/pseuds/3tequilafloor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>From the prompts at <a href="http://sickdaysofficial.tumblr.com/post/146177494224/sick-days-prompts">Sick Days</a> on Tumblr. <i>July 27: Caretaking focus</i></b> (This one just spiraled away from me in a goofy direction and I'm not even sorry 'cause it's chock full of Tanaka sibling goodness.)</p><p>Saeko loves her baby brother, even when he brings home the stomach flu.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dumplings

Finding Nishinoya Yuu nosing around through the kitchen cupboards is hardly a cause for alarm in the Tanaka household, but Saeko still wishes the little shit could be a bit quieter about it. She rubs her eyes and yawns, tiptoeing her way into the room to try not to wake her little brother, who is asleep and drooling on the bench. Not that all the noise his little friend is making seems to be bothering him any. They've got the radio and the television going at the same time, but neither one of them thought to flip the exhaust fan on before they started making a mess. With a mildly irritated eye roll, Saeko nudges one of Yuu's skinny hips aside and fixes that for him at least before collapsing onto the stool beside Ryuu. 

Yuu jumps at the contact and rips out a set of earbuds (exactly how much does it take to keep these idiots entertained, anyway?) in surprise. When Saeko sticks her tongue out at him, he responds with a genuine grin. "Hey big sis," he greets, plunking a cup of tea in front of her with a flourish. She lets him get away with it, just like she has since probably the second week after she'd met the kid. Yuu is a strange little force of nature, to be frank, and trying to sway him from using friendly, endearing terms with almost everyone he knows better than as a passing acquaintance is a losing battle to try to fight. Besides, she's grown fond of him over time, probably due to all of his constant intrusion into her life. She can't hold it against him all that much, considering how good he's been for her actual baby brother. 

"What are you doing, trying to burn down the house?" She snorts at him, then gives the tea a tentative sniff. 

"It's genmaicha." Yuu explains, nodding to the cup. Brown rice tea, probably left over from the past few days she'd spent nursing these two back to health after they'd just about caught their deaths. Saeko eyes the kid suspiciously as she takes a sip, wondering how he's managed to guess that her own head and throat are starting to feel cottony. Still, the stuff is easy on the stomach, and she's not gonna complain about it. He's right, after all. She definitely caught whatever those little jerks dragged in.

Not that it's all that unexpected. She'd known all along it was likely to happen, but Ryuu (and by extension Yuu, because he's always _there_ ) are the only men in the world she'll accept such disgusting, germ filled consequences from. She hopes they appreciate it. The tea makes her think maybe they do, so she reaches over fondly and rubs Ryuu's shaven head. He whines in his sleep, snorts, and rolls just far enough away to plant his face in a dish of scallions. 

"And there's Gyōza. I think." Yuu adds, unperturbed by the fact that his friend is now sleeping in some of the ingredients. "There's definitely broth and...stuff."

Stuff doesn't sound promising, but Saeko can still hear the rawness in the kid's throat as he's speaking, so she decides to let that slide, too. Why he's decided to try and cook dinner when he's probably still not feeling that hot is beyond her, but he's never exactly been a real brain. Saeko gets to her feet with a grimace, because shit, her muscles are all achy too. She's gonna throttle both of these boys as soon as they're well enough to make it a fair fight. She feels Yuu's face. He's still clammy, but he doesn't feel as hot as he did last night, at least. 

He blinks at her, then squares his shoulders off to take up as much space as his small frame allows for. He's only 4cm taller than she is, but he wears it surprisingly well for a kid whose ass she's almost certain she could kick if she ever had any inkling to do so. "Aw, c'mon. Why don'tcha sit down and enjoy your tea? You spent the last couple days holding our hair back for us, right? So let us look after you now!" He complains, giving an animated stomp at the end that has Ryuu snorting awake, jolting upright and staring around in confusion. Bits of chopped onion stick to his cheek. His eyes still look feverish, too.

Saeko rubs her temples again and sighs, praying for strength. These two really are idiots, and one of them really needs to go the hell home and mess up his own kitchen if he's feeling well enough to cause trouble again. "It tastes like petrol. You're not much of a cook, kid. Siddown and shuddup while I try to salvage these poor gyōza, alright?" She retorts bitingly, but Yuu doesn't take it personally. He's been on the receiving end of plenty lectures from her before, because he's an idiot. She huffs out another exasperated sigh, but softens after that. He's her sweet idiot baby brother's idiot best friend, after all. She can't really stay angry at him for very long. 

Then Ryuu sneezes in the scallions, and she grits her teeth. They're so freaking lucky she's such a nice person, because anyone else would have just left them here to die of poorly cooked dumplings. "Am I gonna have to strap you to the bed to keep you out of trouble?" She snaps, forgetting for a moment that Yuu is even there. Ryuu snorts, spraying snot on himself and probably the food on the bench, too. Saeko's stomach flips over, which is bad news. She doesn't have a weak stomach. 

As if reading her mind and deciding to make everything worse, Yuu drops the mushroom he's been trying obstinately to chop up and dry heaves painfully over the sink. Nothing comes up, but she can see his torso spasm through the shirt he's wearing (one of Ryuu's) and that's the last straw. She's putting them both back on bed rest, and herself along with them. She rubs the kid's back until he stops trying and failing to heave up his empty stomach, 'cause she's annoyed but not heartless, then bodily steers him out of the room against his weak protests. She pushes him down onto the sofa, throws a blanket at him, and flips the fan on for him. Her aching body, throbbing head and swimming stomach protest the movement, but she'll get to them in a minute. First, she's gotta get the boys settled in. 

Saeko turns the stove top off on her way back through, then hoists Ryuu up. He at least doesn't object, clearly still feeling pretty shitty himself. She dumps him on the sofa too, with another blanket. Then she grabs a pitcher of water, the whole stack of mixing bowls (just in case) and all of the ice packets out of the freezer. They're gonna have zombie movie night tonight again, they're gonna order in, and Ryuu can be on hair holding duty this time since he hasn't got any. It'll take a lot more than a stupid flu bug to take the Tanaka siblings (and Yuu, she supposes, since he's clearly not going home today either,) down. So bring it on.

\--

The sound of birds squawking obnoxiously to announce the arrival of dawn is off-putting enough, but when Saeko blinks awake she's met with a bright pair of familiar brown eyes and a steaming mug of spicy scented tea under her nose. Saeko groans. It's too early to deal with these two. Beside her, Ryuu is already nursing a mug of his own tea. He offers her a head bob of greeting, still looking pale but far more alert than the night before. "It doesn't taste like petrol." Ryuu promises, voice a little hoarse but stronger than it's been the past few days as well. 

Yuu's petite nose crinkles cutely (he'd hate to hear that, though, so she keeps it to herself,) as he admits "it tastes like chrysanthemum, though."

"It should. That's what it is." Saeko rolls her eyes at them both, but slowly sits up straight and accepts the mug. Her stomach rolls over in warning at just the thought of ingesting anything, but what else is she gonna do? Starve? Obstinately, she takes a sip. Evidently, Ryuu helped with the tea this morning, because it's been steeped properly. Saeko sighs in relief, and catches a little grin from her brother out of the corner of her eye. Yuu practically bounces on his feet, waiting for some sort of reaction. "Not bad kid," she assures him before he can make himself sick again with all the wriggling. It's too damn early for this. 

That seems to do the trick, at least. He flops down on the sofa with them again, a little less gently than two sick people drinking hot tea would usually warrant, but Ryuu is already braced for it and Saeko's reflexes don't let her down. She takes the opportunity to rub Ryuu's head with her free hand while he's too distracted to duck away. Her poor kid brother has been leaking snot everywhere, coughing, sneezing, running a fever and shaking with chills since Thursday. It's Saturday now, but it's looking like he might finally keep something down after all. 

Saeko isn't as sure about the steadiness of her own stomach this morning (last night had been rough for all of them,) but she's not too bent out of shape about it since she can see that Ryuu is starting to perk up a little. Yuu just needs to be strapped down, but that's nothing new. They'll be fine, she decides. That alone is worth the full body ache and a few missed shifts at work. 

When Yuu jumps up ten minutes later to make a run for the toilet, Saeko waves Ryuu back down. "I got it." She promises, ducking to plant a quick kiss on Ryuu's sweaty temple. He squirms away in protest, whining at her for embarrassing him. She doesn't point out that they can both hear how distracted Yuu is at the moment, but she couldn't just let the opportunity slip past. Soon enough Ryuu won't be calling her up when he's sick and needs to be looked after. For now, she's going to baby him sometimes when she gets the chance. She starts to leave the room, but pauses and turns back to Ryuu quickly first. 

"Hey, his mom knows where he is, right?" She makes sure to catch Ryuu's eyes, because she'll let him have most of his blossoming manly pride, but this she wants an answer to. If Ryuu was sick while he was away from home, she'd be worried stiff. Ryuu grunts, but he holds her gaze for a minute before he glances away and frowns. 

"Yeah, no one's lookin' or worryin' ok? We wouldn't put you in the middle of that." He promises. The 'we' in that sentence tells her something she already knew. She's not getting rid of Yuu any time soon. It also tells her that her baby brother is growing up. He's learning to look after people, too. Maybe he's right, and she doesn't have to worry about him quite so much anymore. That's a relief, because as soon as he's feeling better she's going to give him a lot of grief for all of this. For now, she just nods to show she's got the gist of it, and slips away to make sure the other dumb teenager in the house is alright. She never _wanted_ any damned kids to look after, but hey, what can you do?

The taste of the tea lingers on her tongue, warm and sweet.


End file.
